CONCEPTS Mental images or perceptions May be impossible to observe directly May have referents that are readily observable

able Very often are dichotomous or may contain several categories, values, or sub-concepts that fall along a continuum

CONSTRUCTS Is a concept that has added meaning Deliberately and consciously invented or adopted for a scientific purpose CONSTITUTIVE DEFINITION Defines a construct with other constructs OPERATIONAL DEFINITION Assigns meaning to a construct or a variable by specifying the operations necessary to measure it Gives meaning to a variable by spelling out what the investigator must do to measure it Specific definitions mean that there is less danger that the collected data will be misunderstood by others Specific definitions will enable future researchers to replicate the research MEASURED OPERATIONAL DEFINITION Describes how a variable will be measured EXPERIMENTAL OPERATIONAL DEFINITION Spells out the details (operations) of the investigators manipulation of a variable CONSTANT Whatever trait that lacks the ability to vary Not subject to change as circumstances change Concept that has only a single and never changing value VARIABLE A quantity that may assume any one of a set of values can include events, features or phenomena that may take on different values ir occupy points along some psychological continuum Any attribute that may assume any one set of a set of values DICHOTOMOUS VARIABLE Two-valued variables TRUE DICHOTOMOUS VARIABLE

 Characterized by the presence or absence of a property POLYTOMOUS VARIABLE Variables having multiple variables DEPENDENT VARIABLE Its value depends on some value of the independent variable When selecting a dependent variable, make it sensitive or at least sensitive enough to get at the issues at hand Presumed effect or consequent In an asymmetrical relationship, a variable whose values is dependent upon the other but which cannot itself affect the other In a causal relationship: the effect Typically is the outcome or response variable its value is dependent on the value of the independent variable TYPES OF DEPENDENT VARIABLES Behavioral: movements or empirically observable responses the subject makes the researcher measures something that is observable and indexes the strength of responding either by the frequency or the amount of the behavior Cognitive: mental events that can be measured indirectly; to the extent that mental processes can alter measureable responses, inferences can be drawn about the existence of underlying, unobservable determinants of behavior Biological: measures that are obtained from physiological recordings or from changes in body function or morphology - measures of body function or morphology INDEPENDENT VARIABLE It is manipulated independently of the others The experimental manipulation that causes changes in the measured dependent variable In an asymmetrical relationship, the variable capable of effecting change in the other variable In a causal relationship: the cause QUANTITATIVE VARIABLE Uses numbers to indicate the extent to which a person possesses a characteristic of interest Any attribute that we measure in numbers Variables that vary in amount QUALITATIVE VARIABLE Indicate the fact that people who share a value on the variable are equivalent in some way, whereas those who do not share the value are different from each other Have labels or names rather than numbers Variables that vary in kind CONTINUOUS VARIABLE Capable of taking on an ordered set of values within a certain range

 Where it is possible for a quantitative variable to take all possible values on a range between specified limits

CATEGORICAL VARIABLE The individual being categorized either has the defining property or does not May take only isolated values on the range Based on counts of indivisible units TRUE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE Any independent variable that can be manipulated Not all independent variables can be manipulated by the experimenter SUBJECT VARIABLE Cannot be manipulated All variables that are human characteristics organismic variables Is an independent variable that cannot be directly manipulated MODERATOR VARIABLE One that modifies (strengthens, weakens or reverses) the relationship between two other variables The more A, the more/less C, but the effect depends on B INTERVENING VARIABLE Variables A and B may be highly correlated but only because A causes a third variable C which in turn causes B. C is the intervening variable (A -> C -> B) The mechanism biological, mental, physical, emotional, or behavioral process that comes between a stimulus and a response or between some other cause and effect Invented to account for internal, unobservable psychological processes that in turn account for behavior COMMON-CAUSAL VARIABLE Not part of the research hypothesis but causes both the predictor and the outcome variable; and thus produce the observed correlation between them EXTRANEOUS VARIABLE Variables other than the predictor variable that cause the outcome variable but that do not cause the predictor variable May reduce the likelihood of finding a significant correlation between the predictor variable and outcome variable CONTROL VARIABLE A potential independent variable that is held constant during an experiment It does not vary because it is controlled by the experimenter

CONTROL GROUP Designation for untreated subjects Serves as the untreated comparison group or receives a comparison level of the independent variable Group of research participants that do not receive the independent variable, receives zero amount of it, or receives a value that is in some sense a standard value EXPERIMENTAL GROUP Receives the treatment Group of research participants that receives some amount of the independent variable MANIPULATION OF IV Achieved by assigning subjects to conditions intended to represent two or more values of the independent variables Systematic assignment of subjects to the experimental conditions PRESENCE/ABSENCE: a given value of the independent variable is present in one condition, and it is not included in a second condition that is neutral, or has a zero value of the independent variable useful for preliminary investigation; done to determine whether or not an independent variable even has an effect QUANTITATIVE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: the amount of a variable is manipulated (quantitative variation). Typically, this involves three or more conditions where two of the conditions have nonzero values that are distinctively different QUALITATIVE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: the type or kind of variable is varied across conditions (qualitative variation). There is no attempt to specify how much the variables differ EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION: controlled adjustment instructional manipulation and event manipulation of the independent variable

INSTRUCTIONAL MANIPULATION: varying the independent variable by giving different sets of instructions to the participants there is a risk that participants will be inattentive when the instructions are given and a risk of having participant-to-participant variation in interpreting the instructions EVENT MANIPULATION: Affecting the independent variable by altering the events that participants experience have more impact on the participant INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE MANIPULATION: Varying the independent variable by selecting participants that differ in the amount or type of a measured state each participant possesses a certain amount of a variety of variables (personality variables); select participants having different levels of a given variable and the look for effects of the difference

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